Taylor: Collected Stories (Contemporary American Fiction) [Mass Market Paperback]

Peter Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Series: Contemporary American Fiction | Publication Date: January 1, 1993

In this collection of short fiction, one of the heralded masters of the form examines the lives of men and women in the 1930s and '40s South—a region and a time he knew well. Living in a well-ordered world that's beginning to lose its equilibrium, Taylor's fascinating characters struggle to come to terms with the constricting circumstances into which they were born. Delicately interweaving the joys and pains of these families, Peter Taylor goes beyond regionalism to the simple truths recognizable to people everywhere.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the major works of our literature."—Joyce Carol Oates

"He come as close as an American writer can to rivaling Chekhov."—The New York Times

"[Taylor] writes prose as clear as a fine pane of glass."—Time

"[Taylor] has achieved utter mastery in short fiction."—Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World

"No one writing in English can do more with a short story."—Geoffrey Wolff, Newsweek

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Peter Taylor, the author of eight story collections, including The Old Forest and Other Stories (Picador) and three novels, including, A Summons to Memphis, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and A Woman of Means (Picador), died in 1994. A Tennessee native, he had lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his wife, poet Eleanor Ross Taylor.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140083618
• ISBN-13: 978-0140083613
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,195,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Master's Masterpieces: Southern, thoughtful, modern, homey, July 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Taylor: Collected Stories (Contemporary American Fiction) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is my favorite compilation of short stories. The best are Dean of Men, At the Drugstore, Miss Leonora When Last Seen, and First Heat, which is the best fictional representation of the political mind ever written. The stories represent the many faces of the shifts in the Southern and American cultures that have troubled and consumed us for most of the century. To know thyself, know Peter Taylor.

21 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Caveat emptor, August 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Collected Stories of Peter Taylor (Paperback)

There's no denying that Taylor is a very good writer of short stories, but this selection will not do, for the serious reader, scholar, or intrigued novice. There is no documentation whatsoever! One does not know, for example, when these stories were written, where they were first published, who made the selection and on what basis. The last complaint is made even more egregious by the misleading title: this book does not "collect" all of Taylor's stories. Certainly, a preface or introduction would have been helpful. And what's with the photo of a southern plantation on the cover? These stories are set in a post-bellum, mostly urban South. Peter Taylor deserves better than this shoddy, sloppy presentation. So do his readers.

5.0 out of 5 stars A splendid introduction to Taylor's fiction., April 25, 2010

By 

Miles D. Moore (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Collected Stories of Peter Taylor (FSG Classics) (Paperback)

I came shamefully late to the short stories of Peter Taylor, after years of hearing the praise of friends for Taylor's work and reading countless critical encomiums. A lot of reviewers on this page complain that this volume of collected stories doesn't contain one or more of their favorite Taylor stories (even though the back cover plainly states that this represents only the work Taylor published from 1940 to 1969, whereas he lived until 1994). Personally, I think this book is a wonderful introduction to Taylor's stories, and it whets my appetite to explore his work further.

The name of Chekhov is cited too often to praise the short-story writers who came after him, but Taylor is one of the very few who merits the comparison (the Canadian Alice Munro is another). Taylor has a remarkable ability to capture the nuances of human nature--particularly those which cause people to misunderstand each other completely--and record them in impeccably pellucid prose. His particular territory as a writer is the upper South in the days between the Depression and the Civil Rights Act, and he makes it as vivid as any in the history of American fiction. "Reservations" is a funny, bittersweet tale of a couple on their honeymoon, their wedding night foreshadowing the entire future path of their marriage. The title character of "The Fancy Woman" sets herself up for myriad humiliations as she clings to the hopeless expectation that her wealthy lover will marry her. "1939" depicts two college boys whose dreams of romance and literary glory come crashing down during one Thanksgiving weekend. Interspersed between these stories are the marvelous depictions of Southern culture in flux, including "A Wife of Nashville," "What You Hear From 'Em?" "Cookie," and "Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time." This isn't the only book by Peter Taylor you'll ever need, but to those just coming to his work, it's a revelation.